3-D Printable Tools May Help Study Astronaut Health

If
humans are destined for deep space, they need to understand the space
environment changes health, including aging and antibiotic resistance.

A
new NASA project could help. It aims to develop technology used to study
"omics" -- fields of microbiology that are important to human health.
Omics includes research into genomes, microbiomes and proteomes.

The
Omics in Space project is being led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. The project was recently funded by NASA's Translational Research Institute for Space
Health four years of
study. Over that time, NASA hopes to develop 3-D printable designs for
instruments on the International Space Station (ISS), that can handle liquids
like blood samples without spilling in microgravity. These tools could enable
astronauts to analyze biological samples without sending them back to Earth.

Learning
how bacteria affect crew health, or how genes affect aging and disease, can
ensure the safety of long-term missions to Mars and beyond.

No Overnight Mail in Space

NASA
has already studied omics with efforts like the Microbial
Tracking 1 experiment, which examined microbial diversity on the space station. But there's
no way to process samples on the station right now, so they have to be sent
down to Earth.

It
can be months between the time a sample is taken and an analysis is done, said
Kasthuri Venkateswaran of JPL, principal investigator for the Omics in Space
project.

"You
don't have overnight mail when you go to space," Venkateswaran said.
"You have to do all the analysis by yourself. This project will develop an
automated system for studying molecular biology with minimal crew
intervention."

One
of the biggest challenges with preparing samples is handling fluids in
microgravity. Astronauts collect a variety of samples, including their own
saliva and blood, as well as microbes swabbed from the walls of the ISS. These
samples have to then be mixed with water so they can be injected into
instruments for analysis. Without the proper tools, samples can spill, float or
form air bubbles that could compromise results.

Omics in Space will build
on this success by developing an automated DNA/RNA extractor which will prepare
samples for aMinION
device. A critical part of this extractor is a 3-D printable plastic cartridge
needed to extract nucleic acids from the samples for the MinION sequencing.

All
of this technology has been tested here on Earth, said Camilla Urbaniak, a
post-doctoral researcher at JPL and co-investigator on Omics in Space.

"We're
taking what's on Earth to analyze DNA and consolidating all the steps into an
automated system," Urbaniak said. "What's new is we're developing a
one-stop-shop that can extract and process all of these samples."

The Future of Space Health

Previous
omics research has revealed that astronaut immune systems tend to be weaker
after living on the ISS. Scientists aren't sure why.

The field of epigenetics,
which studies how genes are expressed -- including how humans age -- could help
explain how microgravity and cosmic rays affect our DNA.

But Omics in Space isn't
just about the human passengers who travel to the ISS. There are also microbes,
carried by humans and cargo alike, which accumulate on board
spacecraft.

"We
need to put together a 'passenger list' of the microbes that ride along to
space," said Nitin Singh of JPL, another co-investigator on the project.
"Then, astronauts can detect genetic markers revealing whether these
microbes are helpful or harmful -- the 'luggage' these passengers are bringing
with them."

Being
able to respond to changes in a crew's environment is crucial during long space
voyages, said Ganesh Mohan of JPL, a co-investigator on the project who will be
working to detect pathogenic microbes.

"You can see whether a
possibly harmful microbe is increasing in number in real time. If needed, we
could then take actions to counteract those microbes," said Mohan.

The Omics in Space project
is funded by NASA's Translational Research Institute for Space Health, which is
jointly operated with the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The
institute is overseen by NASA's Human Research Program.